Is creativity too much of a risk? (Opinion)

While I am excited to see Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, I also want more new original movies in the cinema. A lot of the films coming out this year are reboots, remakes, adaptations, prequels, or sequels, and many of them are action movies. While I love to see a good action movie every now and again, it is far from my favorite genre. I am dying for more variety and Hollywood just isn’t delivering. They are more focused on productions they know will be a success. The reason why movie studios make so many remakes and sequels is because more people will go to see them. Even if someone doesn’t want to see these movies, they are going to be dragged to see them anyway. Hollywood knows that if they keep retreading old ground, they will keep making money. They would rather make what’s popular instead of meeting the demands of every individual consumer. This doesn’t apply to just movies, it applies to TV as well. There are almost as many reboots in TV as there are in film. Everything available to watch seems the same. It all blurs seamlessly together. The reason why I started writing this piece is because I want something new to watch. I want to be excited to go to the movies again and I want a new TV show to binge watch, but my options are limited when it comes to originality. Here is a short list of all of the remakes, adaptations, prequels, and sequels coming out this year:

Black Panther

Tomb Raider

Solo: a Star Wars

Deadpool 2

A Wrinkle in Time

Avengers Infinity War

Sherlock Gnomes

Rampage

Incredibles 2

Jurassic World

Ant Man and the Wasp

Hotel Transylvania 3

Mamma Mia 2

Pacific Rim Uprising

The Equalizer 2

Peter Rabbit

Fifty Shades Freed

Mission Impossible: Fallout

Teen Titans Go! To the Movies

Christopher Robin (I know he’s a real person, but this film is going to have Winnie the Pooh in it)

Slender Man

The Predator

Ready Player One

Robin Hood

Johnny English 3

Vemon

Goosebumps: Horrorland

Halloween

Mowgli

X-Men: Dark Phoenix

Insidious: the Lost Key

Paddington 2

Mulan

Nutcracker and the Four Realms

The Grinch

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck It Ralph 2

Sicario 2: Soldado

Creed II

Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse

Aquaman

Bumblebee

Holmes and Watson

Alita: Battle Angel

Mary Poppins Returns

There are 45… 45 different remakes, prequels, sequels, and adaptations are coming out this year alone. This isn’t because originality is dead, but because Hollywood doesn’t take risks anymore. There is probably someone out there with an amazing idea for a film. This movie could possibly end up being the next unlikely success. It could be just successful as ‘Star Wars,’ but it will never be made, because a new idea is too much of a risk for modern Hollywood. We will be the generation without an original film. Unlike the 90s, 80s, 70s, or 60s, there won’t be a new film to define our generation. We don’t have a ‘Toy Story,’ a ‘Back to the Future,’ a ‘Star Wars,’ ora‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.’ We don’t have anything.